Percy Wyndham and Turner Ashby

Sir Percy Wyndham

       Of the colorful characters of the war, Percy Wyndham was not even a citizen of the United States. He was an English soldier of fortune He was a bit of an enigma. He was born on a ship in the English Channel in 1833 and came to America proclaiming to have been a sailor in the French Navy, a soldier in the British Army, the Austrian Army, and as one of Garibaldi's Volunteers. Many proclaimed that he was a fraud. Very little seems to be certain about the man except for the fact that he arrived in America to fight for the North and was made a colonel of New Jersey Cavalry. 

       Wyndham was very tall, always dressed nice, and a bit of a show off. He came to Virginia bragging that he would capture or kill Confederate Cavalryman Turner Ashby. Ashby had received word that Wyndham and a group of picked cavalry were out to get him. He told his men that he didn't want Wyndham to gain any reputation at his expense. 

Brigadier General Turner Ashby

       The two men would meet on June 6, 1862 in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Wyndham rode south in search of Ashby with 400 New Jersey cavalrymen. He soon spotted some of Ashby's troopers. Turner Ashby was fighting a rearguard action for Stonewall Jackson with the support of some of Richard Ewell's infantry. Ashby had set up an excellent ambush for any approaching Federals. He placed one of his cavalry regiments in the middle of the road for Wyndham to see while hiding another cavalry regiment and some infantry in some nearby woods. 

       Wyndham immediately charged right into the ambush. He was quickly surrounded by Confederate infantry and cavalry. It was over in an instant. Seeing his men fleeing in panic, Wyndham shouted, "I will not command such cowards!" He then was taken prisoner himself. 

       Wyndham was not amused having been captured by the very man he'd bragged about getting himself. Ashby's troopers taunted their prisoner all the way to the rear. Wyndham became the most upset when many of the Rebel soldier's began calling him a "Yankee Colonel." 

       Wyndham replied, "I'm not a Yankee, you damned Rebel fool." Of course this just seemed to make matters worse for him as the Confederate troops roared in laughter at his bad luck. The Confederate's quickly added that Wyndham was a mercenary, not a soldier of any kind, but the same as a Yankee. This infuriated Wyndham to the point that he asked the soldiers to stand there in the road and fight him with fists. The Confederate's were content to just irritate him that much more. 

       Sadly, for Turner Ashby, he couldn't leave well enough alone. Colonel Thomas Munford noticed that Ashby was setting up another ambush. He told Ashby that he'd accomplished a great thing, but he should let well enough alone. Ashby didn't listen. Later that same afternoon, he was killed attempting to fight Federal infantry. The above photograph shows Ashby deceased and propped up with what appear to be flowers placed in his hand. 

       Percy Wyndham would be released in a prisoner exchange one week later. He would see action at Thoroughfare Gap and be wounded at Brandy Station. He was soon called a fraud by the English politician Percy S. Wyndham. 

       Union General Joseph Hooker liked Wyndham and recommended his promotion. Rumors were circulating that Wyndham was contemplating joining the Confederate Army. He never got the promotion. 

       Following the war, Wyndham joined the Italian Army and later moved to India. There he was forced to sell all of his military decorations to support himself. He began giving lessons on hot air balloons. On January 27, 1879, his balloon burst and he fell over 300 feet (some accounts say 500 feet) to his death in a lake near Rangoon, Burma. He was 45 years old. 

Wyndham was one of the first "pilots" to die

Sir Percy Wyndham

The Madness of Turner Ashby

The Madness Of Turner Ashby

Turner Ashby

I recently began reading the book Shenandoah 1862 by Peter Cozzens. As I'm currently working on a book about Bloody Bill Anderson and have been studying Sadistic Personality Disorder something Cozzens mentioned about Ashby caught my attention.

Ashby may not have been quite the knight that history records him to be. Don't take what I'm saying the wrong way. Ashby was a great warrior and a gentleman but certain events seem to have affected his mental health.

Born into an upper class Virginia family, the entire fortune was lost soon after his father's death. Turner was just six years old and according to Cozzens, his mother spent the family fortune attempting to keep up appearances with the planter class.

Ashby worked his way into a moderate home, yet was often hauled into court because he couldn't pay his debts. Probably, for this reason, he remained a bachelor his short life.

The event that seems to have sent Turner over the edge was the death of his brother Richard in the summer of 1861. During a skirmish with Federal cavalry, Richard had been hacked over the head with a saber that took off part of his skull. As he lay in the road wounded, another Federal horseman dismounted and drove his saber through Richard's stomach. When Turner reached his brother's side, he was lucid and begging for water. He would survive for a week.

According to Cozzens, Turner struggled with grief and rage. He vowed to kill every Yankee he possibly could without regard to his own safety. His men seemed to grasp his rage and began to do things to embarrass the enemy soldiers. Some Federal soldiers were found stripped naked and even placed in the shape of a crucifix.

Ashby would never become a Quantrill or Bloody Bill Anderson, but he would never cease to hate the Federals until his dying day on June 6, 1862 at Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Turner Ashby photographed in death

Cozzens says that following his brother Richard's death, Turner struggled with his good nature and his maniacal desire for revenge. Although, it is true that Ashby despised the enemy, there were times when he showed kindness to Federal prisoners and wounded. The question I suppose I would love to have answered is had he survived and the uglier the war became especially in his beloved valley in 1864, would he have become a Quantrill or Bloody Bill Anderson?

Writing the book on Bloody Bill, I consulted a psychologist friend of mine who says that Sadistic Personality Disorder is an old term for what is now called a sociopath. My wife and I went to his house on the 4^th of July (he has a house overlooking the Tennessee River) to watch the annual fireworks show from a barge in the middle of the river. There was a psychiatrist friend of his there and I asked her if a person was born a psychopath or could they be turned into one by events in life. She informed me that if I could answer that question I could write a million dollar book.